Friends as good as family.
Ithaca's Farmers Market
Cayuga's Waters
A rare win for Cornell football
A jolly reunion at Stella's
One of Espwa's little boys hung some flowers from a spiderweb. It caught my breath to see the little blossoms suspended in air. Images like these - these kinds of memories - and faces like this little girl's float through my mind.
This is the most damage that the streets of Les Cayes suffered in the Hurricane Dean aftermath. So far, only a few deaths have been reported throughout the southern department.
The sucker's getting bigger... We're just hoping it slips through Jamaica and Haiti and doesn't head north at any point. Otherwise, next week is going to be all about disaster relief.
Among many things, the engineer was amazed at the antiquity of a the hand pump being used on the only operational well on the property. The "pump" has little rusted buckets attached to a leather belt, which reaches down 18.5 meters. The buckets splash water into a trough when someone winds the handle. Saying that Sr. Flora operates on a shoe-string is an understatement. 
Hopefully, with this added expertise, a project proposal that is in the works will bring much needed aid to Sr. Flora's 55 kids.
Yesterday, Paige and I went out to try to "capture" some of the kids looking gloomy. We literally had to bribe them with candy -- and even still, we caught far too many smiles! But man, without a cheerful, toothy grin to hide the sorrow, their eyes reveal naked tragedy. They possess memories that no one deserves, let alone kids their age. 
This little boy (below) did not need any coaxing, however. It would be hard to exaggerate the harsh reality of going through life with one foot -- especially in a place where prosthetic limbs are only a fantasy. 
Late last year, the president agreed to sign over more authority to the UN mandate, enabling peacekeeping troops to go after gang leaders in the anarchical streets of Cite Soleil.Figures provided by the U.N. show the dramatic downward trend in the violence nationwide. In January 2006, there were 240 attacks on U.N. troops. Over the past four months, there have been only 12. Kidnappings are down as well: six in June, compared to 162 in December 2005.The commander in charge of the peace keeping troops, Brazillian Carlos Alberto Dos Santos, is responsible for spearheading this mission. Whether by luck or strategy, the "soccer-mad" Haitian residents of Cite Soleil resisted less to the presences of these foreign soldiers because a majority came from Brazil, a favorite soccer team.
Furious building is going on at city hall, another sign of improving times. But while everyone concurs that security has improved, Haiti is still a place of abject poverty. There is no fighting, but there also is still no work.The UN has a mandate to improve public buildings, but foreign aid will have to come from governments as well as private-sector organizations. Less violence and a more stable government infrastructure are the first steps needed toward greater investment. Haiti has a lot of potential; perhaps it is on the brink of realizing some.
In a different era, Graham Greene wrote in his novel The Comedians about the dark cloud over Kenscoff. Nearly half a century later, it's still there: the black rain cloud that empties itself on the mountains above Port-au-Prince.
Still hope of a future...
Saved from starvation...
At serious risk of teenage pregnancy...
Haiti has stretches of coast with little or no development. The few beaches near more populated, waterfront towns are usually destroyed or literally covered with trash. With recent improvements to infrastructure (better bridges, paved roads, electricity) and slow but steady economic growth, the facts about this devastated Caribbean island could change. Miles of empty, turquoise water do not promise change any time soon, though. 
Even with some real achievements in national monetary policies and with GDP growth creeping ever higher, the government must still face major socioeconomic challenges. Human rights violations remain Haiti's greatest plague. This lingering and gruesome quality of a long-unstable government is painfully visible everywhere in the country and creates a stark contrast to the dazzling colors and uninterrupted panoramas. 
Reading M.S. Bell's biography on Toussaint Louverture, one cannot help but wonder what Ayiti, land of mountains (so-called by the Arawak Indians), looked like at the time of the famous slave rebellion against the French colonizers. Certainly, the verdure of the foothills and mountains exceeded that of even the lushest parts of present-day Haiti. Thousands of deserted slaves found cover in the jungle and rain forest that covered the steep terrain, which now mostly hangs in craggy, naked swaths above the limited plains.
The hills above Port-au-Prince offer a panoramic view of the capital city and the mountains around it. By day, the beige-colored land looks cracked and thirsty. By night, the hills still blaze in places where any vegetation remains. With nothing left to shelter the sun-baked land from tropical rains and winds, thousands die in mudslides like the one in Gonaive not too long ago.U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and Haitian police raided the home of former army officer Guy Philippe near the southern town of Les Cayes... Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has long been a key transshipment point for South American cocaine headed for markets in the United States and Europe... While the U.S. and Haitian agents failed to capture Philippe, they did arrest a hotel owner, Lavaud Francois, on drug trafficking charges on Monday, said Osman Desmangles, a spokesman for police in the northern town of Gonaives.
After a little evening out, we braved our flooded living quarters together. Our names are (left to right in the middle photograph) Portia, Paige, Blood and Erin. We are superheroes. We have incredible powers. We - are - taking - southern - Haiti - by - storm... at least as long as the storms don't take us first (last night was wild).
The Espwa kids come to us from this reality. Though we cannot offer them everything, we can offer thousands of children a hope they might not otherwise know. We often kid about the face that might "make" Espwa's non-existent trust fund -- we want to do more for Haiti's future. So, we talk about the "honest-to-goodness fly-in-the-eye orphan." We know these exist and that this is no joke, but what we really mean to say is that we must capture that reality and bring it to the consciousness of those who might help.
A holy frog, known here as a CRAPO. It's as big as a meaty fist and it's residing in the quad's chapel.
Paige, also known as PAGINA to the Spanish-speaking world or PIDGE to the Creole-speaking world. "Pidge" is my favorite. Say it out loud a few times to yourself.
